Chapter 13 - CALEB'S MISTAKEWe found Caleb before Dominic declared war on the state of New York.
Technically, Caleb found us.
Forty-three minutes after disappearing from school, he called me.
“Don't freak out.”
I closed my eyes.
Never in human history had those words prevented anyone from freaking out.
“Where are you?”
“Manhattan.”
“Where?”
“A diner.”
Dominic held out his hand.
I refused to give him the phone.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Is the woman with you?”
Caleb hesitated.
“Yes.”
Dominic mouthed, Give me the phone.
I turned away.
“Caleb, listen carefully. Don't leave. Don't argue with her. We're coming.”
“She isn't dangerous.”
“You don't know that.”
“I think I do.”
Twenty minutes later, Dominic entered the diner first.
Every customer looked up.
Apparently expensive suits and homicidal paternal energy attracted attention.
Caleb sat in a booth beside a woman.
Lydia.
Older than the photograph.
Still unmistakable.
Dominic crossed the room.
“You took my son.”
Lydia didn't flinch.
“He followed me.”
Caleb raised his hand.
“That part is technically true.”
Dominic stared at him.
“You are grounded until retirement.”
“Dad—”
“Later.”
I slid into the booth opposite Lydia.
“Why contact him?”
“I didn't.”
Caleb looked guilty.
She explained.
Caleb had overheard enough of our conversation to search Rebecca's archived foundation files.
He found Lydia's old photograph.
Then he found an online alias connected to her.
He contacted her.
Dominic slowly turned toward his son.
“You did what?”
“I was helping.”
“You contacted a woman connected to the people who murdered your mother.”
Caleb's confidence disappeared.
“I wanted to know her.”
That stopped Dominic.
Caleb looked down.
“Everybody remembers Mom except me.”
My heart broke.
“I was six when she died. I remember her perfume. I remember one song she sang. Sometimes I don't even know if those are real memories or things people told me.”
Dominic sat down.
His anger vanished.
“Caleb…”
“I thought Lydia knew her.”
Lydia did.
Very well.
Rebecca had hidden Lydia for nearly two years.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because Julian Cross was my father.”
There it was.
Lydia Cross.
Julian's daughter.
“My mother discovered what he was,” she continued. “She tried to leave with me. I was four.”
“What happened to her?”
“I don't know.”
Lydia had grown up believing Evelyn abandoned them.
Julian raised her.
When Lydia was twenty-three, she discovered one of her mother's journals hidden among his possessions.
She learned Evelyn had intended to testify.
She also learned Julian had lied.
“Rebecca found me while investigating Hale.”
Dominic stared.
“She knew who you were?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“Because I asked her not to.”
Lydia's eyes filled.
“I was terrified of my father.”
She gave Rebecca evidence.
Names.
Bank accounts.
Meeting locations.
Then Rebecca died.
Lydia disappeared.
“Why come back now?”
She looked at me.
“Because Julian contacted me.”
The diner seemed to become quieter.
“From prison?” I asked.
“No.”
Dominic went still.
“What do you mean?”
Lydia removed a phone.
On the screen was a message received six days earlier.
YOUR MOTHER IS ALIVE.
Beneath it was a photograph.
An elderly woman sitting beside a window.
I studied the face.
Same gray eyes as Lydia.
Same cheekbones.
“Evelyn?”
Lydia nodded.
“The photograph was taken recently.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
Another message followed.
BRING ELEANOR VALE TO ME AND YOU GET YOUR MOTHER BACK.
Dominic's expression turned cold.
“You came for my wife.”
“No.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because I spent my entire childhood believing my mother abandoned me.”
Lydia's voice broke.
“And I refuse to make another child lose his mother to Julian Cross.”
She looked at Caleb.
“I came to warn you.”
Caleb's phone vibrated.
He checked it.
His face went pale.
“What?”
He turned the screen toward us.
A photograph had just arrived from an unknown number.
It showed the five of us sitting inside the diner.
Taken through the window.
Beneath it:
NOW THE WHOLE FAMILY IS TOGETHER.
Dominic stood.
May you like
Across the street, a man lowered a camera.
Then ran.
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